Those that influence people about your brand are not the people you once thought, nor, perhaps, those you would like them to be. Now it’s all about whom in the social media world is talking about your market. For that reason, you should be starting a dialogue with those people, not just bloggers and people in the industry.

To find your influencers in this new world, you need to start with looking for what blogs mention you or your market most often. Analyze the trend over three to six months to begin identifying. Look at how many times they mention your brand, then how many times they mention your competition. After ruling your list down to 100, find whom they get their recommendations and information from. Going to Blog Grader and Twitalyzer to get scores for each of them will help to further rank them on their influence in your marketplace.

Image by Hermann Schwarting